Behavioral Characteristics and Driving Factors of Social Media Users’ Impression Management: A Case Study of the “Curated” WeChat Moments

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_84How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social Media; Impression Management; “Curated” WeChat Moments

Abstract

In today's era when social media platforms are highly prevalent, it has become a common phenomenon for users to engage in self-presentation through carefully selected and edited images along with meticulously crafted captions. While users engage in idealized self-presentation by packaging themselves, it brings psychological anxiety or identity anxiety to many users. This, in turn, prompts a large number of users to develop a herd mentality, exaggerate the packaging of their personal images, and even become lost in the world of false packaging. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the behavioral characteristics and driving factors of impression management among social media users through the phenomenon of "curated" WeChat Moments, so as to better guide users to present themselves in a healthy manner. This research is based on the theory of "Impression Management" and conducts an empirical study through questionnaire surveys, collecting data for analysis. Research shows that social media users manage their impressions by posting refined content on social platforms. Their willingness to post such content is influenced by three factors: curation level, self-disclosure motivation, and anticipated audience approval. In this behavioral pattern, users generally demonstrate a willingness to invest time and effort in curating a polished social media presence. They are inclined, mostly, to a style of presentation which is associated with low levels of editing and refinement- after the image has been edited, they are still in close contact with objective reality.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yingsi Xie
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - Behavioral Characteristics and Driving Factors of Social Media Users’ Impression Management: A Case Study of the “Curated” WeChat Moments
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 826
EP  - 836
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_84
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_84
ID  - Xie2026
ER  -